Startup Story
Dr Hajira Mashego is the founder of Fitness Junction in South Africa. She is a qualified sport physiotherapist who studied further to complete a Master’s Degree in Public Health (with a focus on fitness) and a PHD in Human Movement Science (also focusing on fitness). She has vast experience in sport physiotherapy, exercise science and sport management and has served a combined 26 years in the health, wellness and sports sectors. Hajira resigned from a senior management government position, took her pension contributions and established Fitness Junction, a gym company in February 2018. The company has been bootstrapped and has grown organically, now employing 14 people. Fitness Junction is a provider of commercial, corporate and home gyms.
LoA chatted to Dr Hajira Mashego this month to learn more about her passion for the business of fitness and her ambitions for the growth of her business and brand.
What does your company do?
Fitness Junction (Pty) Ltd is a South African fitness company. The first fitness center (gym) is based in Westview, Danville, Pretoria West. The company’s focus is on the peri-urban and rural commercial gym, the corporate gym and home gym markets. Fitness Junction offers the same quality of products and services as the gyms in cities and suburbs but is within reach of the peri-urban and rural markets. Fitness Junction also aims to grow its offering of commercial box gyms through franchising from the beginning of 2022. Fitness Junction, therefore, helps peri-urban and rural residents, home exercise clients and corporate employees to attain their wellness and fitness objectives by being accessible to them and offering holistic services at affordable prices. The company offering includes: commercial gyms to the peri-urban and rural clients (through a head office network and franchising), corporate gyms, and home gyms.
“Fitness Junction offers the same quality of products and services as the gyms in cities and suburbs but is within reach of the peri-urban and rural markets.”
What inspired you to start your company?
My PHD study opened my eyes to the adverse health effects of sedentary lifestyles. Sedentary lifestyles contribute to overweight or obesity, which increases the risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis, mental decline, poor health status, dying of heart disease prematurely, and developing breast or colon cancer. Globally, approximately 3.2 million deaths each year are attributable to insufficient physical activity. In South Africa, there is a disturbing trend of a drastic increase in overweight and obesity rates among black and colored South Africans, thus increasing the burden on the public health system. The majority of peri-urban and rural populations do not have access to gyms. They have to travel to distant towns or cities to access fitness products and services. Access to quality fitness products and services is thus the main challenge contributing to the health profiles of adults residing in peri-urban and rural areas. Based on these findings I therefore established Fitness Junction with the aim to provide access to gym facilities to the peri-urban and rural town markets in order to prevent diseases of lifestyle among those population groups.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Fitness Junction helps peri-urban and rural residents, home exercise clients and corporate employees to attain their wellness and fitness objectives by being accessible to them and offering holistic services at affordable prices unlike typically expensive suburban or city gyms.
• We make health and fitness accessible to our people by offering the same quality of equipment and services as the gyms in cities and suburbs - within reach of the peri-urban and rural populations e.g., currently in a shopping center in Westview Township, Pretoria West
• We have a health and wellness focus over and above the aesthetic focus
• Our offering is cost effective and affordable to the emerging middle class
“Fitness Junction helps peri-urban and rural residents, home exercise clients and corporate employees to attain their wellness and fitness objectives by being accessible to them and offering holistic services at affordable prices.”
Tell us a little about your team
Mr. Thembinkosi Skosana serves as the Fitness Junction operations and fitness manager. He is a qualified fitness trainer and personal trainer with prior experience as a fitness trainer in the police services, Planet Fitness, and at Swallows Football Club.
Mr. Francis Sinkonde serves as the sales manager. He is a qualified teacher and has 16 years’ experience in the gym sales environment.
Mr. Skosana and Mr. Sinkonde oversee 12 permanent employees and 4 commission-only employees. The employees serve as fitness instructors, sales consultants, club administrator, cleaners, and receptionists. The company is also serviced by 8 independent service providers (group fitness instructors) who invoice Fitness Junction based on a pre-determined hourly rate.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I was an employee firstly in the Health sector and later in the Sports and Recreation sector where I progressed until I reached Executive management. As I was progressing in my career I was also progressing academically until I obtained my PHD. After I obtained my PHD I decided to complete a one-year programme in Social Entrepreneurship at GIBS in order to learn how to monetize my knowledge and expertise. Upon completion of the program, I then resigned from government and used my pension contributions to set up Fitness Junction Westview.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
The plan is to scale organically to establish a network of commercial gyms nationally. Three other divisions are also planned and are being worked on:
• The Fitness Junction franchise model is being finalized in order to start selling commercial franchises in 2022
• The Fitness Junction corporate gym division is planned to service corporates that need to establish gyms for their staff
members or appoint a management agent for their existing gyms,
• The Fitness Junction home gym division is aimed to target high net worth individuals who would like to set up state of the art gyms in their homes
“Being able to impact the health profiles of our community members and hence improve the quality of their lives is what gives me the most satisfaction.”
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Being able to impact the health profiles of our community members and hence improve the quality of their lives is what gives me the most satisfaction.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
It is one of the most difficult paths that you might choose to follow, but the scenery at the top is the most fulfilling.
Contact or follow Fitness Junction
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | EMAIL hajira@fitnessjunction.net
Why LoA loves it…
Many businesses are conceptualized and built in response to an identified need in society, and for Dr Hajira Mashego, she saw a need to make fitness accessible to a wider audience. Her business model is not only bringing fitness within reach of the peri-urban and rural markets, but her franchising model is also creating business opportunities for other entrepreneurs too. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa